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Later this month, several of the IDEA4Africa team will be traveling to Kampala to teach a week-long Seminar in Uganda focusing on entrepreneurship and leadership skills. It will be our first Seminar held in Uganda where we will be working with a mixed group of high school students and residents of the refugee camps.

Elizabeth Nakato, our Ugandan Country Director, and Aris Ashigue, a Congolese resident of the camps who works alongside Elizabeth, and who speaks 4 languages, will take the lead in both how we organize the various participants in the seminar and how we might work around language barriers that are sure to exist. Our newest Board Member, Krissy McQuaid, will take the lead in teaching alongside myself and Amanda Schleicher, a friend of IDEA4Africa and a veteran teacher herself with degrees in math and education.

We’re sure there will be some situations we will struggle with but we will follow our own teaching and learn from our mistakes and change direction: the ACT – LEARN – BUILD model.

We’re looking forward to the challenges and the successes of the group! You’re sure to hear more from us upon our return!

Mothers who mean business

Last month IDEA4Africa and Maranyunda Initiative held a joint event screening the film MAMA RWANDA directed by Laura Waters Hinson.

MAMA RWANDA examines a new generation of Rwandan women whose passion for entrepreneurship is transforming Rwanda into one of the world’s fastest growing economies. A tale of working mothers who endured genocide, Mama Rwanda is an intimate portrait of two women on journeys to build peace through prosperity creation.

The stories were Interspersed by commentary from Rwandan experts in women’s entrepreneurship, highlighting the role of education and access to capital in empowering women to overcome poverty through entrepreneurship.  Having survived the genocide, these women are trading subsistence living for a life of business innovation, sparking enlightenment and controversy within their communities.

Immediately following the film, attendees watched short videos about IDEA4Africa and Maranyunda Initiative highlighting the communities we are working with to change the trajectory of young Rwandan lives.

Dennis Hanno, Founder and President of IDEA4Africa was joined by Isabelle Byusa, our first Country Director in Kigali, and Rosine Ndayishimiye, one of Dennis’ first star students in one of the Academies he ran in Rwanda for a panel discussion. The interactive talk focused on the need for early entrepreneurial education in the country in order to change people’s lives and impact the country.

Thank you to John Micalizzi of RSM, the audit, tax and consulting company, for sponsoring this event.

And thank you to David Bramante of the West Newton Cinema for accommodating our needs for the evening!